Dani Pedrosa topped the timesheets once again on the second day of prototype testing at Sepang, the Repsol Honda man getting off to a flying start and cracking into the 2’00s early in the session. He was joined there by Jorge Lorenzo, the Factory Yamaha rider once again shadowing Pedrosa, ending the day just two hundredths behind the Repsol rider.

Marc Marquez confirmed his first day times were no fluke, the only other man to post a lap in the 2’00s, though the rookie was a quarter of a second slower than his teammate on Wednesday, losing a fraction of the ground.

Valentino Rossi once again took 4th spot, the Italian still just under half a second off the two title favorites. The Honda men continued to work on engine durability, while Yamaha riders Lorenzo and Rossi had new engines with more acceleration to test, and a new chassis aimed at curing the pumping from the rear wheel of the bike.

Cal Crutchlow took over the best satellite rider spot, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man ending three quarters of a second behind Pedrosa, but a respectable quarter of a second off the pace of Rossi.

Stefan Bradl continued to impress on the LCR Honda, nabbing 6th today, a fraction behind Crutchlow, and over a third of a second ahead of Alvaro Bautista, the Go&Fun Gresini rider continuing to work on the Showa suspension the team has elected to use instead of the Ohlins used by nearly the entire rest of the field.

Bradley Smith’s second full day of testing went a lot better than his first, the Tech 3 rookie wiping 1.5 seconds off his time from Tuesday, and closing in on Bautista.

The fortunes of the Ducatis also radically improved. Both Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso took over a second off their times from Tuesday, and improved to 9th and 10th, ahead of the Honda and Yamaha test riders, which should elicit a huge sigh of relief in Bologna. The gap to the fast men is now back to 1.5 seconds, about the same as it was for Hayden at the first Sepang test last year.

The Pramac satellite riders also improved, Ben Spies took two-whole seconds off his time from yesterday, continuing to struggle with his weak shoulder and getting to grips with the Desmosedici. Andrea Iannone took 1.3 seconds off his time from yesterday, setting the 15th time, 2.6 back from Pedrosa.

The work of dialing in the spec-ECU continues for the CRT teams, and progress is rapid. Danilo Petrucci is getting closer to the Aspar ART bikes of Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet, with the FTR Kawasakis of the Blusens Avintia team now not far behind. Irish rookie Michael Laverty put in an impressive performance, slashing a second off his time from Tuesday, and closing on Karel Abraham on the ART machine, as well as the two Avintia bikes.

The weather held up well almost until the end, the rain only falling in the final hour of the test. A large number of riders took advantage of the rain to get some time in on rain tires. The forecast for the final day of testing on Thursday looks less promising, with rain looking likely all day. But at least the MotoGP men now have two solid days of testing under their belts.

Results from Day 4 of MotoGP’s Test at Sepang, Malaysia:

Pos.

Num.

Rider

Team

Time

Diff.

Prev.

1

26

Dani Pedrosa

Repsol Honda Team

2:00.549

–

–

2

99

Jorge Lorenzo

Yamaha Factory Racing

2:00.568

0.019

0.019

3

93

Marc Marquez

Repsol Honda Team

2:00.803

0.254

0.235

4

46

Valentino Rossi

Yamaha Factory Racing

2:01.038

0.489

0.235

5

35

Cal Crutchlow

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

2:01.311

0.762

0.273

6

6

Stefan Bradl

LCR Honda MotoGP

2:01.369

0.820

0.058

7

19

Alvaro Bautista

Go & Fun Honda Gresini

2:01.729

1.180

0.360

8

38

Bradley Smith

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

2:01.931

1.382

0.202

9

69

Nicky Hayden

Ducati Team

2:02.110

1.561

0.179

10

4

Andrea Dovizioso

Ducati Team

2:02.379

1.830

0.269

11

72

Kosuke Akiyoshi

HRC Test Team

2:02.526

1.977

0.147

12

T2

Katsayuki Nakasuga

Yamaha Factory

2:02.701

2.152

0.175

13

11

Ben Spies

Ignite Pramac Racing Team

2:03.002

2.453

0.301

14

T1

Wataru Yoshikawa

Yamaha Factory

2:03.156

2.607

0.154

15

29

Andrea Iannone

Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team

2:03.169

2.620

0.013

16

41

Aleix Espargaro

Power Electronics Aspar

2:03.251

2.702

0.082

17

14

Randy de Puniet

Power Electronics Aspar

2:03.791

3.242

0.540

18

9

Danilo Petrucci

Came IodaRacing Project

2:04.284

3.735

0.493

19

37

Takumi Takahashi

HRC Test Team

2:04.559

4.010

0.275

20

7

Hiroshi Aoyama

Avintia Blusens

2:04.786

4.237

0.227

21

8

Hector Barbera

Avintia Blusens

2:04.989

4.440

0.203

22

17

Karel Abraham

Cardion AB Motoracing

2:05.028

4.479

0.039

23

33

Michael Laverty

Paul Bird Motorsport

2:05.417

4.868

0.389

24

71

Claudio Corti

NGM Mobile Forward Racing

2:05.721

5.172

0.304

25

68

Yonny Hernandez

Paul Bird Motorsport

2:05.837

5.288

0.116

26

5

Colin Edwards

NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team

2:06.205

5.656

0.368

27

67

Bryan Staring

Go & Fun Honda Gresini

2:06.898

6.349

0.693

28

52

Lukas Pesek

Came IodaRacing Project

2:30.243

20.963

14.614

Lap records and 2012 Sepang 1 times:

Pole Record

2012

Jorge Lorenzo

2:00.334

Lap Record

2007

Casey Stoner

2:02.108

2012 Sepang 1

Day 1 fastest

Jorge Lorenzo

2:01.657

2012 Sepang 1

Overall fastest

Casey Stoner

1:59.607

Source: MotoGP; Photo: Honda Racing

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

well the combined test results are in for the last test of 2013 and the season is about to start again. dont hate on me for this cuz I’m from the states and I know there will be lots more of the same excuse’s we heard last year…ben spies cranks out 48 laps for the whole test while everyone else was past 100 and his main rivals all did 145 or so….and ben comes in 17 overall with his teamate and a few crt bikes ahead of him……I dont care what the excuse is he had all off season to be at the top of his game and so did the team for this most crucial test especially for him…..really ben you should have went back to wsbk that is were you shine sir…you do not have the work ethic it takes to compete at motogp level in any consistent manor and your taking the spot of people who do…I site mark marquez aproch to “getting his head in the game” no distractions no hambuger startups no music headphones all the time no cell phone texting or reading every 30 minutes no silly dumbass videos ! just work ! cuz ben at this level it’s hard work very hard work and you like to sleep in man.